Red Knight of October
by Ricadonna
Summary: Galatea is defeated and the world tries to build up what is lost. Nene and Linna gets rescued, but only Linna returns to Japan. What is happening? It seems that this is just the beginning... Pairings will be revealed as story goes.
1. Chapter 1: Rescue

**Red Knight of October**

A BGC2040 fanfiction

  


**Disclaimer:** This fanfiction is written with no profit. It is just written for the sake of fan appreciation and own take of the BGC2040 story and alternate continuation. Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 and it's characters, design, universe, etc. does not belong to me but AIC and ADV plus other companies involved. The only things that belongs to me is this story written and the original characters put in the story.

The wind was a breez out at the sea, cold despite the warm climate. It was getting close to late summer, but the autumn was already sneaking into the weather. In the middle of the sea, a medium sized submarine was slowly making its way forth on its patrol. On the top of it, a tall bearded man in a black navy uniform was on the lookout with his binoculars. He seemed to be focused on something.

"Николай, ты замечал кое-что?" (Nikolaj, have you noticed something?), one of the other men on the submarine asked him curiously, yet with a tone of profession. He was wearing a similar uniform, and was of a similar rough build as the person he was asking, but noticeable was a deep scar running across his left eye, which seemed to have a dull pupil and iris. Most likely, blind on that eye.

"Я думаю, что я вижу двух человек. (I think I see two people)", Nikolaj responded and lowered his binoculars, eyes still on his target.

"Где?" (Where?), the other asked.

Nikolaj pointed, "Там!" (There!)

  


"Here little crabby, come here...", the blonde tried to lure a little crab who was side-stepping towards the water. "Please come her-- ow!", she yelped and shook her finger. "Bad crab! Bad crab!", she scolded the escaping crab, holding her finger who had received a nip from one of the crab's claws.

The brunette gave the blonde an irritated look, "Nene, you're supposed to eat the crab, not make it a pet.". Food had been scarce on the island the last two days and she found herself getting a bit impatient and easily irritated by the lack of food and drinkable water.

"But... but it's so cute.", she answered pitifully, still holding her paining finger.

Linna sighed. "You said that about the stingray as well!", she reminded the blonde.

The blonde went wide-eyed. "No! I will not eat Mackey the Second. Never!", Nene protested wildly.

Linna sighed again, giving up on the blonde who was preoccupied finding things in the sand, so she resumed to looking for something edible. But it didn't take long until the brunette was interrupted in her search.

"Linna!"

Instantly Linna turned around when her name was called. "What is it?"

"I think I see something at the horizon!"

  


"Что мы должны сделать?" (What should we do?), the rough-built man asked Nikolaj who proceeded to return down into the submarine.

Half-way down the ladder, he looked back up to him with a determinded look in his eyes, honestly answering. ""Я принесу им, Григорий." (I'm going to get them, Grigorij), then he resumed entirerly climbing down the ladder to get to buisness.

Grigorij's stern face got a light smile, "Считайте меня." (Count me in.), he added, supporting the Second Captain in his course. The wait for something to do on the patrols had been intense for the submarine's crew of the Russian Pacific Fleet, and the fact that things were beginning to happen had made him instantly supporting the cause. Besides, two people? If Grigorij was lucky, it would be two pretty exotic women.

Down in the submarine, Third Captain Ivan; a bit more strong built than Nikolaj but not as much as Grigorij and possibly the shortest out of the high-ranked crew, was observing with discontent how the majority of the sailors were not taking their work serious. Either singing the same old songs over and over and playing accordion, or talking about something completely pointless. A pair seemed to discuss their girlfriends at home who most likely pity-dated them, one seemed pretty unnerved by the liveliness of the singing group, and out of the disasterous crowd one youthlooking male was working with the technological parts of the submarine.

"Иван!" (Ivan!), Nikolaj called out to the shorter man who instantly turned his head towards the caller. "Мы возглавляем Северо-запад на спасательной миссии. Заставьте моряков понизить субмарину ниже воды и возглавлять там." (We are heading northwest on a rescue mission. Make the sailors take the submarine under water and head there), he commanded the lower-ranked captain while walking towards the group of sailors. "Копуши!" (Slowpokes!), he yelled out to the bunch of young men that instantly made the accordion music fall silent along with the singing and talking. "Время игры закончено. Время, чтобы слушаться!" (Playtime is over. Time to obey!), Nikolaj announced with a harsh tone before heading to a different area of the submarine.

After some seconds of silence and receiving stares from the sailors, Ivan spoke up. "Ну? Работа начала!" (Well? Get to work!), he barked at the still staring, silent sailors. He was losing his patience. "Вы бездельники! В последний раз, пойдите и-" (You good for nothings! For the last time, go and--)

"Хорошие новости!" (Good news!), Grigorij interruped Ivan's scolding of the sailors, "От моих наблюдений люди, которых мы должны спасти, - женщины." (From my observations the people we are to rescue are women.), he annouced with a much happier tone that usual, and after a short silence he added, "И что я мог видеть, они казались голыми." (And what I could see, they seemed naked.)

What Grigorij had said, caused a violent change and made the young sailors run around like they were on a battlefield. "Давай! Давай! Давай! Прежде, чем они одеваются!" (Go! Go! Go! Before they get dressed!), a sailor yelled while trying to push past the other enthusiastic comrades to get first.

The young engineer that had previously been fixing some of the machinery instantly stood up and ran behind the others to help. "Эй! Ждите меня!" (Hey! Wait for me!)

"Идиоты ..." (Idiots...), Ivan muttered under his breath, putting a hand on his forehead.

In the other room, Nikolaj just raised an eyebrow at the loud mess in the nearby space of the submarine, and resumed writing a report.

  


"But... but... I swore I saw something. Right there!", Nene stuttered in disbelief as the object in the distance had disappeared in the matter of a short minute.

Normally Linna had plenty of patience-- even with Nene, but in a desperate situation like this, Linna could not help but become a little angry with her. "Nene! It's not funny."

The blonde piped, "What?"

Trying to regain more control, she took a deep breath and looked at Nene again. "We are deserted on an island in... the middle of nowhere! I cannot... Nene, you...", she stumbled a bit on her words until she regained more control of her speech. "If you think you see something. Please, be sure that you do not imagine seeing it."

As soon as Linna finished her sentence Nene cut in, "I /did/ see it! I swear, Linna, I did. Please! I saw it right there...", she tried to assure her friend and pointed a finger where she had pointed earlier before. "I'm not lying!"

Linna's eyes widened. "Nene!", she gasped.

"Please, Linna!", Nene begged more with a desperate tone in her voice, but was not able to continue saying anything until Linna forced her to turn around towards the ocean. Nene's eyes widened too.

Out of the ocean, in the distance, the top of a submarine was rising up while driving at full speed towards the island and the stranded women, rising more and more as it got closer. What had been a feeling of lack of hope was now replaced by the opposite feeling. Joy was filling them, but shortly after, feeling of embarassment. They remember that they were wearing nothing!

While the submarine was getting closer and rising up on the surface, the women quickly tried to grab fallen leaves from the island's palmtrees to cover their most private parts of their bodies so they would not have to stand the embarassment of being nude in front of the rescuers. And as they felt more comfortable with their apperance, they calmed down.

Linna smiled at her friend. "Thank you, Nene!"

"Hm? Ah... it was nothing.", Nene smiled back, feeling less of a burden for Linna now.

Soon, they would be getting home.

  


**A/N:** Yes, kids. I am getting back into writing since not writing seriously since 2004. I have been wanting to write this fic since months and now, here is the Prologue/First Chapter of it. Short, I know. But I hope it will be a good introduction. Things might be confusing for now, too. But don't worry-- it will branch out more as time goes. Along with support and reviews. A lot of OCs will appear, but they will -not- be the main focus!

While there will be romance in the story, it will not be the main focus either. What pairings? It will be revealed as time goes, but I guess some people can guess as the story goes. ;3 The rating might go higher too, but never go over the M-rating (No pr0n! cries D8)

Yes, now you wonder "What's with the cyrillics? Why not write how it is pronouced instead of making it more difficult?". Russian is a bit tricky to transcript with 100 accuracy and decided to have it written with cyrillics. But when cyrillics appear, I will -always- transcript it with me and a friend's best ability to do so. For transcripts for this chapter, look further down.

I hope people -will- enjoy this fic. I know it will probably not catch most people's taste or attention, or disagree with my interpretation of the BGC2040 universe, but still... try to enjoy it at least?

Credit to helping me with the Russian and transcribing goes to my friend Marcus (Renny).

**Transcripts:**

_"Николай, ты замечал кое-что?" - _Nikolaj, ty zamechal koe-chto?

_"Я думаю, что я вижу двух человек" - _Ya dumayu, chto ya vizhy dvukh chelovek

_"Где?" - _Gde?

_"Там!" - _Tam!

_"Что мы должны сделать?" - _Chto my dolzhny sdelat'?

_"Я принесу им, Григорий." - _Ya prinesu im, Grigorij.

_"Считайте меня." - _Schitajte menya.

_"Иван!" - _Ivan!

_"Мы возглавляем Северо-запад на спасательной миссии. Заставьте моряков понизить субмарину ниже воды и возглавлять там." - _My vozglavlyaem severo-zapad na spasatel'noj missii. Zastav'te moryakov ponizit' submarinu nizhe vody i vozglavlyat' tam.

_"Копуши!" - _Kopushi!

_"Время игры закончено. Время, чтобы слушаться!" - _Vremya igry zakoncheno! Vremya, chtoby slushat'sya!

_"Ну? Работа начала!" - _Nu? Rabota nachala!

_"Вы бездельники! В последний раз, пойдите и-" - _Vy bezdel'niki! V poslednij raz, pojdite i-

_"Хорошие новости!" - _Khoroshie novosti!

_"От моих наблюдений люди, которых мы должны спасти, - женщины." - _Ot moikh nablyudenij lyudi, kotorykh my dolzhny spasti, - zhenshchiny.

_"И что я мог видеть, они казались голыми." - _I chto ya mog videt', oni kazalis' golymi.

_"Давай! Давай! Давай! Прежде, чем они одеваются!" - _Davaj! Davaj! Davaj! Prezhde, chem oni odevayutsya!

_"Эй! Ждите меня!" - _Ej! Zhdite menya!

_"Идиоты ..." - _Idioty...

_**Ricadonna, August 2006.**_


	2. Chapter 2: Scattered

**Red Knight of October**

A BGC2040 fanfiction

  
**Disclaimer:** This fanfiction is written with no profit. It is just written for the sake of fan appreciation and own take of the BGC2040 story and alternate continuation. Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 and it's characters, design, universe, etc. does not belong to me but AIC and ADV plus other companies involved. The only things that belongs to me is this story written and the original characters put in the story.

The city was in complete ruins. What used to be Tokyo was now a mess of destroyed buildings and ruins. There were trucks everywhere, investigators and a few returnees. One of them being a certain young brunette. She looked around at the surroundings, feeling suddenly a bit lost and out of place. She didn't know where to go, now that she had returned to Tokyo instead of her parents' house out in the country. But she kind of hoped to find Sylia and the others, to confirm her survival.

Linna bit her lower lip a bit and took the risk to go to where Silky Doll's ruins would probably lie. It would be the most likely place the others would be at, especially Sylia, the only one she could imagine getting comfort from and a less worried mind. But there would be no guarantee. She wished Nene was here with her, so she would feel accompanied by at least someone she knew. The people around her, she didn't know. None of them. She felt like a lost child in this mess, a feeling she haven't felt for ages.

It was difficult to get through the city with the ruined roads. But she was determined to get there. She really had to.

After long minutes of bothersome walking and climbing, she arrived at the front of Silky Doll's remains. But she saw nobody around and her heart dropped. She sighed and sat down at a nearby pile of rubble. "Typical...", she muttered. She had nowhere to go and had no money at all. All that she wore was a striped navytop and a pair of black navypants and she bet people around her thought she came directly from the fleet, which in a way was true. It didn't help that the shoes were slightly oversized either, she must have looked like a mess.

She leaned backwards and looked up in the sky. It was a pretty clear day and still the summerweather tried it's best to hold on. It was not humidly hot anymore. It was more chilly but not cold. "At least something's going well...", she thought to herself. "But sitting here won't do any good.", she then reminded herself and got up. "Maybe..."

But her train of thought was interrupted as she heard a male's voice cursing behind her.

"Leon, be careful.", a soft humorous male voice told the curser. "We do not want you to hurt your little feet."

"Hey, shut it Daley. What do you take me for, a kid?"

"You do act like one from time to time though."

When Linna turned around, she instantly saw them; Nene's ex-coworkers of the now defunct AD Police. Leon, with whom Linna was most familiar, was a bit of a grumpy stubborn man while Daley, his assistant, was a more mild laid-back guy of possible British descent. All hope that had previously vanished returned to Linna and she got up to call for them. "Mr. Leon! Mr. Daley!"

Leon almost stumbled over a new piece of rock at the sudden yelling. "What the h..."

"Well, what do you know, it is Miss. Yamazaki.", Daley smiled and motioned Linna to come over. "All okay?", he later added in concern.

A bit sheepishly, Linna jogged over to them in her slightly oversized pair of shoes, navytop and pants. "Pretty much, thank you. What about you guys?"

"How is Priss? And Nene?", Leon interrupted Linna and Daley's conversation with a hint of desperation in his voice. "Please tell me they survived.", he begged and almost looked like a tiny lost puppy in those eyes. But it was understandable, as Leon had spent days worrying himself sick over the Knight Sabers' survival on the battle against the super-boomer Galatea.

"Priss... I have no idea about. I'm sorry.", Linna replied with some sadness in her voice, being just about as worried about her safety and survival as anyone else. "I... didn't land with her. We, me and Nene that is, got in fact thrown back to earth while she was still battling Galatea.", she continued on while looking down at the ground, not wanting to face Leon when giving him the news. "We will just have to see if we find her. That is why I want to find Sylia.", she added softly and finally looked up into Leon's gaze again.

There was a short silence and Leon nodded. "I understand. It's...", he began but didn't finish his sentence. "Time will tell, right Daley?", he said in an attempt to sound optimistic.

Daley nodded and put a hand on Leon's shoulder. "Priss is a survivor, Leon. And Nene, she is alright, isn't she Linna?"

"Eh... yes. She did because she was tossed together with me back to earth. And we were picked up pretty quickly by a submarine.", Linna explained to the two who kept looking at her with suspense. "A Russian submarine, actually."  
  


"Just a few miles left and we should be in Cairo.", one of the Egyptian peddlers called over his shoulder to the women that they had found just yesterday while taking a pause on their way to the great bazaar.

The man got no response but a simple nod. Not like the man expected an answer; he had already learned how this woman works and communicates. Priss had fallen down into the Egyptian part of the Sahara desert and was to her great luck picked up by a lone peddler who was nearby taking a break together with his camel.

It seemed that in Egypt people were still pretty traditional and still many peddlers depended on the great camel for transport through the desert. And even still they had bazaars in the old parts of Cairo, while some parts of Cairo had undergo a great development in high-tech. The desert, though, was pretty much untouched.

Priss tugged a bit at the white piece of cloth that helped covering her mouth and nose, protecting her from the occasional breezes that brought up sand in the air. "How bothersome", she thought to herself. All she wanted was to get home.  
  


"So, that is why the brat didn't decide to come along...", Leon said understandingly.

It seemed that Nene decided to stay on the submarine and skip Japan. It would bring back memories to her and she still supposed Mackey was really defunct, or as she said; "dead". You had to be blind to not notice the deep connection between the two teens and how crushed Nene got when Mackey risked his life to help out the Knight Sabers, including the person closest to him; Nene. A very heroic gesture that had crushed her deeply.

He nodded a few times and then got reminded. "Speaking of her..."

Linna sat up in the carseat and put a hand on the passenger's front seat where Leon sat. "What?"

Leon digged in one of the bags that had contained objects found in the AD Police tower ruins, and after a while of digging Leon held up a little stuffed animal. "This.", he said and dropped it in Linna's other hand. "I believe it is her stuffed cat-thing Uprio. We found it in the masses of ruins.", Leon explained while Linna observed the plush.

The little ermine-plush was a bit soiled and had some open damages in a few areas but was otherwise in amazingly good condition. It looked up at Linna with it's beady eyes and cute cat-smile. It almost made her heart break a little on the inside, thinking of her depressed friend. "Thank you, Leon. I will... bring it to Sylia and Mackey when we get there."

She sat back and let the ermine sit on her lap, facing her. She just eyed it while Daley was driving and Leon sitting in the passenger's seat quietly. Nobody said a word, not even Daley. Time to time, they would look out and watch the ruins of what was Tokyo. Volunteers from plenty of countries had travel to help out in the city and rebuild but it would probably not be restored for some good months. The AD Police had currently moved it's main office to a neighbouring city and plenty of barracks had been placed out where Leon and Daley had to live until everything was restored.

But right now, they were heading to Sylia's old countryhouse, to bring both good and bad news. This was going to be a long process...  
  


**A/N: **Yep, chapter two out. So, the first chapters are short, yeah. But they will be longer as deeper we go into the story, I hope. Still not a lot have happened. Neither am I the best fanfic writer. Oh well. Enjoy!

_Ricadonna, September 2006._


	3. Chapter 3: Point of No Return

**Red Knight of October**

A BGC2040 fanfiction

**Disclaimer:** This fanfiction is written with no profit. It is just written for the sake of fan appreciation and own take of the BGC2040 story and alternate continuation. Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 and it's characters, design, universe, etc. does not belong to me but AIC and ADV plus other companies involved. The only things that belongs to me is this story written and the original characters put in the story.

---------- 

The day had been very quiet and uneventful so far. But when staying at the old summerhouse in lack of any other place to go, and it being located far from any city, it would be expected to be quiet. Even so, it was oddly bothering the beautiful woman. The only sound that came would be the occasional bumblebee and the sound of porcelain against porcelain as she brought up the cup of tea from the plate she was drinking from that Mr. Henderson had so nicely given her.

She sighed and stopped bringing the cup midway to her lips. She supposed that she missed the very lively months that had been fighting boomers, being surrounded by the Knight Sabers, listening to Mackey talking to Nigel about mechanics while he would reply with his "hm" as he was a man of few words.

Speaking of Mackey, the poor boomerboy was still recovering from having himself taken by Galatea and then thrown back to his human shell with his memories in a bundle. When he had finally returned two days earlier, her heart felt like it could beat again with a regained energy as he had uttered her name, remembering her. Even if Mackey was just a creation by her father from her mind, that little boy had become exactly like a little brother to her. She had almost become protective of him like a, sister? No, like a mother.

Finally, she took one last sip of the tea and put it down a bit loudly by accident. Henderson picked up the sound and went out to the porch where Sylia was sitting.

"More tea, Madame?" he politely asked her.

But she shook her head. "No, thank you Mr. Henderson. How is Mackey?" she asked with concern. She knew Henderson was keeping an eye on him as he needed supervision until full recovery. "Has he eaten properly?" she added to her previous question.

"Mackey seems to be recovering, but not any fast process I am afraid, Madame. He seems to be bothered by something which I am afraid I do not know what. He is eating, but sparsely." he answered kindly but his voice had a hint of worried concern before putting rest of the tea on the table out on the porch in front of Sylia.

"Alright, thank you Mr. Henderson.", she said as grateful as possible. But she couldn't keep the worry out of her voice. Not only was Mackey still shattered but none of the Knight Sabers had appeared and she currently had no access to engines that could help looking them up. She felt so helpless in this position and she had three lives on her conscience. None of which she had any news on.

Henderson decided to break the silence. "If you need me, I will be around, Madame Sylia.", he told her nicely before bowing and walking back into the country house, leaving Sylia sitting alone in her thoughts out on the porch. He knew Sylia was the person who needed a lot of time for herself, especially when in a very worried state like she was in now. But Henderson could at least offer being around in case there was something he could do for her.

Inside the house, Mackey was sitting in an armchair while looking silently at a wall that was covered in different framed pictures. He wasn't entirely focused on them but deep in thought, trying to regain his memories that were scattered in his mind. Pieces were falling back, he was remembering, he began recognizing, he knew more and more. His sister Galatea had been kind enough to, when she decided to put millions of pieces of herself down onto earth, to give back his memories and other data. But it was scattered and not put together yet.

Mackey leaned back his head towards the back of the armchair and stared up at the ceiling. His blue eyes were thoughtful. He felt something in his mind and came to sense that a very important person was not around. She was blonde, with blue-green eyes, smallish... it was coming together and as it did, he felt more alive. Like a big piece of him was returning back and making his core increase in energy and beat with more force. He began remembering slowly how he had met her. An awkward first meeting that had surprised his virgin pure mind and made him blush. How she at first disliked him but came to befriend him, exchanging conversations and knowledge with him. Often visited him after work just to talk and socialize and whenever she did he became so overjoyed.

He remembered how he was fascinated with her, found her to be amazing in so many ways. She was so intelligent, bright and resourceful. But that was just the beginning. He soon enough found himself being attracted to her looks and features. What was this? He had heard the terms attraction and love. Could he feel love or not? When it came to human feelings, he had been a bit clueless and probably thusly came across as boyish, awkward and timid. Being an artificial biomechanic being was not easy when having a human mind and soul because a lot of things confused him to no end.

But what had briefly been a feeling of happiness, later turned into a hurt that panged his core with a feeling of desperate loneliness. He missed her. He missed... what was her name...?

Nene Romanova.

----------

Linna leaned lightly against the car while holding a can of beverage, enjoying the pause they had taken from driving. It had taken an hour or so and the car needed to be refilled so they had stopped at a gas station that was in a good condition being away from the disaster in Tokyo. She really needed to stretch her legs and have a drink, as it was impossible to get some back in Tokyo. The little plush ermine, Uprio-chan, was tucked safely into her pocket, so Linna knew she would not loose it. After all, she was determined to have it returned to Nene.

Speaking of Nene, Linna thought back to when they were rescued much earlier that day. Leon and Daley had not asked for any details on the event, but she was sure they were going to ask sooner or later. The event replayed in Linna's head over and over, not being able to stop thinking about it. She looked briefly at Leon and Daley; Leon was close to kicking some coffee machine while Daley was calmly telling him to calm down and that kicking won't solve anything. Most likely worsen it, eventually drenching everything in hot coffee and that would not be a pleasant thing to experience.

Soon enough, the can of beverage was empty and Linna decided to dump it in a recycling can that was located next to the outdoor coffee machine Leon had declared revenge upon. Daley just gave his co-worker a chuckle, and then looked over at Linna. "So, Linna."

"Hmm?" Linna looked over at Daley. "Yes, Mr. Wong?"

"Hey, you can call me Daley." he smiled softly, not finding any necessity of being very polite to each others. "You never told me, or Leon, exactly what happened out there. Mind telling?"

Leon picked up the conversation and gave up on muttering at the coffee machine, decided that his curiosity will be fed as he too was wondering exactly what had happened. "I would like to know, too." he chimed in.

She knew that it was no idea to decline the request, besides; she owed them to know exactly what had happened out there after they had picked her up and supported her. They had even agreed on driving all the way to Sylia's old country house, they had been a great support. "Okay.", she said and she instantly got the two men's attentions.

After telling them how the battle had gone, how she and Nene had successfully landed on earth but sadly having to leave Priss behind, being stranded on the island and doing their best to survive, well, at least she was very focused on it while Nene was desperately trying to turn every sea animal across as a pet, even a tail-less stingray she very nicely named Mackey the Second, she got into the rescuing part. "But apparently, one of the captains was not just some random Russian..." she began, telling from her flashback.

_The tall blond Russian looked at the petite young woman with great happiness. "Моя воробейушка!" (My little sparrow!), he said and opened his arms._

_"Папушка!" (Daddy!), Nene said with the same amount of happiness and ran into the man's open arms and got held up high into the air easily like she weighted nothing at all. When so close to each other, Linna instantly saw the resemblances the two had and figured out-- Nene's father had rescued them?_

_But she barely got more time to think as two of the sailors ran up to her but had suddenly stopped, stared at her, then the other one glared at his comrade. "Ты сказал мне, что будут голые женщины!" (You told me that there would be naked women!), he yelled._

_"Там - возможно - быть, ты идиот" (There would -possibly- be, you moron!), the other young man barked back. This apparently infuriated the other and he growled back, "Достаточно, я убью тебя!" (That does it, I'll kill you!), then proceeded tackling, and a fight broke out in the sand._

_Not sure what to say, Linna just stood there and eyed the fighting youngsters for a while, until an sailor came up with a set of navy-wear, shyly handing them to her. As soon as she accepted the items, the sailor ran back towards the submarine past the rejoiced father and daughter._

_Speaking of them, Nene ran from her father back to Linna, "Linna, this is amazing! My dad is the second captain on one of the submarines of the Pacific Submarine Fleet of Russia." she said with excitement in her voice. "I haven't seen him for so long!" she continued on, obviously very happy of the outcome of the adventure. Linna barely got time to open her mouth to speak until Nene spoke again, "And I got clothes, and so did you. Put them on, Linna, we're going back to civilization!" She pushed Linna towards some bushes to put on the clothes in peace from hormone-crazed young sailors' eyes._

Leon's eyes widened. "The second captain was the brat's father?" he said with a surprise in his voice. "Who would have known..." he trailed off, and then spoke up again."Please continue!" Leon said eagerly.

So she did.

_It was a little noisy down in the submarine as the engines were working fully as it drove back into deeper waters, disappearing from the surface into the sea to safely travel back to civilization. The two feisty sailors who had previously been on the verge on killing each others in the sand were now tending their nosebleeds and small wounds they had given each others, exchanging spiteful glares. The shy one who had previously given the half-naked Linna her clothes was gone messing with the engines and made sure it was properly working the way it should._

_Before Nene was walking back to Linna, she exchanged a few words with her father, none which Linna knew. "Okay, Linna. It will take a few hours to get there. They do not want to push the engines too much, if the wait's okay for you, that is...?" Nene asked her friend with concern._

_"Oh... No, it's fine by me.", she answered to Nene's concerned question. A few hours was not a big thing, especially not after being rescued and in a safe place. "I just..." she began, trailing off a bit._

_Nene tilted her head a bit. "Hmm?"_

_"I... don't know any Russian." she finished explaining her main concern right now. "I just know Japanese and basic English. So..."_

_But her blond friend just giggled, gesturing with her hand like it was no big deal. "Don't worry, Linna. I do, and the crew here know a little share of English as well. If that was your biggest worry, there should be none."_

_After she heard that, she was relieved. As soon as they had gotten rescued Linna had felt a bit left out, not understanding a word of what they had said. All she knew, is that they spoke Russian both from the sound of it and how Nene apparently had understood the large blond man, and going by Nene's last name... "You are Russian, am I right?" she carefully asked._

_Nene nodded. "Да", she said playfully and giggled a bit doing so. "But I and my parents moved to Japan when I was pretty young and achieved a Japanese citizenship not too long ago as I decided to stay there. I like to keep my past a bit secret, as a hacker and all, or they can trace me back to my roots." she explained as Linna nodded. Then she changed subject. "Also, there are two beds where we can rest for a little while until we're having food. I'm exhausted after all the fighting and being stranded." she said as she stretched with an arm up in the air._

_"Resting sounds good." Linna agreed with her friend._

_Instantly afterwards a bunch of the sailors walked past them with a water-filled aquarium walked by. "Аквариум, проникая." (An aquarium, coming through)._

_As they left, Linna was pretty confused and decided to ask Nene. "Aquarium?"_

_"Ah, yes. I decided to take along Mackey the Second." Nene explained nonchalantly after yawning._

_"You brought along the stingray!" she said, baffled by the fact that Nene bothered to bring along the tailless stingray found by the island._

"Whoa, wait. A... stingray?" Leon asked puzzled. "Did I miss something?"

Linna looked a bit bitter. "Well, yes. She tried to turn every sea animal around into a pet; including a tailless stingray she nicely named Mackey the Second."

For some reason, the entire situation imagined made both Daley and Leon chuckle a bit. "Well, it sounds like Nene, alright." Daley said in amusement. "But I am not sure how Mackey would think about having a monstrous-looking fish named after him."

Leon turned to Daley, "Stingrays are fishes? I never knew."

Daley decided to change subject from fishes to Nene again. "But I am curious, Linna. How come Nene did not decide to return, she have so many friends here wishing her to come back. Could you fill us in, please?" he asked her politely.

She bit her lip softly, "Well..."

_As dinnertime finally had come, Linna got to experience the not so pretty sight of Nene stuffing her face full of food; everything from blinis (Russian pancakes) to piroshki to different bakeries. The other sailors seemed intrigued by Linna and found themselves looking at her and practicing their awkward English on her._

_"I believe piroshki kan chang'ke vorld.", one sailor said cheerily before taking a bite out of his piroshki, just confusing the poor brunette even more than she was before._

_For every minute that passed, she felt more and more out of place. But she comforted herself with the facts that Nene was here, the crew was generally nice and friendly, and she was returning home in one piece. But as she slowly sipped the borsch-- with much more table manners than Nene had!--, she was thinking about the people at home, her family, and most of all Priss. Pretty early in the adventure out in space they had separated and Priss was left alone to face the psychotic boomer herself. While it was comforting knowing that Priss is a true fighter, she couldn't help but wanting to know what happened. Did she survive, or did she..._

_"Prettij girl, eat borsch bevfore koldness engulves it's varmt!", one sailor said jokingly to her, interrupting her from her thoughts._

_It was true, though, she had held the spoon to her lips for a good minute or so. Despite being hungry, Linna's worries dominated her mind right now. But then something else hit her. "Excuse me, where is Nene?", she asked in the best English she could muster._

_"Eh, Nellya?" the tall burly blond man that apparently was her father turned to her. "She vent's to de dorm." he explained like it was no concern. As he had known his own daughter from birth, he knew Nene liked to draw herself back to somewhere peaceful and quiet. She was just that kind of girl to withdraw._

_"Thank you.", Linna almost whispered and stood up slowly to head to the dorm Linna and Nene got to borrow until the return to Japan._

_But Linna got to see Nene sitting on one of the thin beds that were all over the dorm for the sailors and engineers to sleep on. After a while, the figure sighed and Linna decided to speak up. Something was not right here, she knew it. "Nene?" No response, so she decided to walk up to the sitting blonde and sit next to her, looking at her with concern. "Nene, is something wro--?"_

_Nene cut off Linna, "I can't go back with you to Japan." she began. Then after a short pause she continued. "I'm sorry, Linna. I can't.", she said with a more shaky voice and looked up at Linna with a pained look. "I spoke to papa, and... I decided to go with him to S:t Petersburg again. I would return with you, but..."_

_Everything had to sink in before Linna could ask her, "But, what?" Then she asked the question she really wanted an answer to. "Why?"_

_It was silent for a while, as Nene tried to muster to speak up again, collecting the right words. After a sigh, and Linna's patient waiting, she finally responded, not facing Linna's gaze. "It's... you know... I... I don't think I can face... what's waiting for me at home, Linna." was her slightly cryptic answer Linna tried to interpret._

_"Waiting... at home?" the brunette finally spoke up, not really sure if she had interpret what she said correctly._

_"Mackey.", came the word as Nene looked back to Linna, a very sad gaze meeting hers, which was rare to see from such a cheerful person as Nene. Linna knew that it was hurting her a lot. From the short time, Linna had known Nene, it really did show that the blonde was emotional and once she showed her feelings, they were strong in their expression. Just like know..._

_After a long silence, Nene uttered, "I'm sorry.", and closed her eyes, sinking together with her face in her palms._

_Instantly acting on her instincts as a friend; she held her softly._

Linna sighed, and the two men looked at her with silence, and she quickly broke the silence with adding, "That's pretty much it."

"So Nene's on the way to S:t Petersburg now? At least, we know where we got her. But still...", Leon sighed too.

His co-worker could not help but smile slyly at his superior, "Aww, you miss Officer Romanova already?", he asked him teasingly, poking a little fun at him like he usually did to the poor guy. Just as he wanted, Leon reacted.

"No, why the hell would I miss that... brat. With all the Leon-chan and Leon-pyon... what's "-pyon" supposed to mean? Seriously!", then Leon pointed to Daley. "Besides, I have you as a replacement-picker anyway."

Daley softly pushed away Leon's hand and chuckled. "But you react in a funny way to the picking, no wonder Romanova often does it. You have quite the temper.", he told him as-a-matter-of-factly, patting him on the shoulder.

"Truthfully, you do.", the brunette said, supporting Daley's accusation. "No offense, McNichol.", she smiled softly.

After shifting his eyes between the two, he held up his arms in defeat. "Okay, I admit! You win.", then he let his arms down again. "Now, we should continue on our travel, alright? Enough picking on poor Me.", he said firmly and headed towards the car, the other two smiling and following after him to the vehicle. It was some good hours of driving left, so it was a good decision.

The white-clad figure jumped off the tall animal that had just comfortably lain down on the ground to take a rest from the long walk through the desert. Before turning to the two salesmen, she fixed the scarf protecting her nose and mouth against the sand. "Thank you.", she said, always keeping her speech short and with only necessary words wasted.

"No problems. You are heading to the ambassador, right?", he asked her but got no answer, and took that as a hint to continue on. The man pointed to far into Cairo where tall modern buildings and skyscrapers were seen, behind the bazaar that was it's foreground. "Head there. People shall tell you directions. English is our country's second language. Good luck on travel.", the man finished and went to help his friend unpack everything from the two camels.

With no words, she headed off.

----------

**A/N**: Well, here it is, chapter 3. Finally! I have been here and there, so it took it's time. I had a difficult time wrapping up the chapter, so it might seem to have lesser quality (Hah! Quality...) than the first part. Oh well... some emo in there too. Well well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

_**Translations list:**_

_Моя воробейушка! - _Majja varabjejushka._  
Папушка - _Pappushka_  
Ты сказал мне, что будут голые женщины! - _Ty skazal mnje shtå budut gålye zhenschinyj_  
Там - возможно - быть, ты идиот - _Tam VOZMOZHNA byt'. Ty idiot  
_Достаточно, я убью тебя!_ - Dastatochna ja ub'ju tebja  
_Да_ - Da  
_Аквариум, проникая._ - Akvarium pronikaja.

_Å_ is kind of like "o" and "u" mixed together.


End file.
